Latest news

For the past two transfers, Kiirsten has been serving in Brest, on the western coast of France on the English Channel.  She is serving as the senior companion and is loving it.  Transfers are coming up and she'll be getting a new companion.  Her new companion is from Mexico and speaks little-to-no English, giving them the opportunity to speak only French all the time.  Kiirsten's really excited to be serving with someone who has a totally different background than herself.  

Here's a picture of the area she is in, enjoy!

  

I am shame-faced...

So, it's been a LONG time since I last posted to the blog and I feel so bad about it.  Here's a quick update before I make a real post:

Kiirsten is now in Brest, France, which is on the English Channel.  She is a senior companion and loving serving the people of Brest.  We just received a package from her (never would have expected that!) in which she included tons of pictures, seashells from the English Channel, an audio tape, and some super tasty German chocolate (ironic) which is very popular in France.  

I promise that for the last few months of her mission, I will do my best to faithfully update the blog on a regular basis.

Take care everyone!

Bonne anniversaire!!

It was Kiirsten's birthday this week (two days ago to be exact)...she turned the big 2-3!! Here's her latest email. Oh, and also, she hit her half-way point on the 16th so we're on the down-hill slide! Enjoy the update!
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Thanks to all for all the Happy Birthday messages. I had a great Paris birthday! I started the morning with a surprise crêpe fête from the other Sisters, and then we had an early appointment with Xuengpeung (pronounced sway pung), she was baptized just a couple of months ago. Anyway she wished me HB and got me a present! She bought me a beautiful purple, houndstooth scarf. I love it! I can't believe she got me a present! She is too generous. Afterwards we had District Meeting and the Elders surprised me with a patisserie and sang HB to me. I was so embarrassed! But it was very sweet of them. Throughout the day I got phone calls from investigators and members wishing me a happy birthday. One Chinese girl told me I needed to eat noodles because in China eating noodles on your birthday insures you long life! Luckily I had Thai soup for lunch that afternoon. All in all it was a great day!

Today we are going to Musée d'Orsay.

It is an old train station made into a museum at the turn of the 19th century, or so I heard. There's Whistler's Mother and The Thinker, I can't wait. Ahhh, I love Paris. I hope to stay through the Winter season! Anyway, we plan to meet up with my "son", Sister Huzu, and Sister Bernskov this afternoon.

We have been very busy this transfer with less active work. We visit several less-active, single sisters in the ward and in the neighboring ward now as well. It is hard to be a single female member here. Many members live on small budgets and the American members are all very wealthy in comparison so they can't really relate, and in addition, the majority of the American sisters don't really speak much French at all. It makes it difficult. but the less actives love missionaries and we love to see them. There is a lot of faith here. France is a gold mine of faithful saints, they just don't quite understand the organization of the church yet.

We got e-referal!! A young girl from Colorado is nannying for a couple in our ward and her best friend and her husband also live here. We have made several contacts with her and she wants to meet with us. We are trying to set up an appointment with her and the her best friend's family for next week. We think there is a lot of potential there.

Well, that is the scoop! I love you all very much! Take care and keep praying for the missionaries!

Bisous, Kiirsten

On Broadway!!

So transfers were this week and I did not get transferred nor did Sister Hathaway, we are staying together! But funny story actaully, the other two sisters who live with us are getting seperated so guess who is coming to replace one of them? Sœur Marshall! S. H's and my old comp from last transfers 3-some! We are all going to be roomies again! Fun fun fun!

So, Lots of news. First of all, I am now a FATHER. Let me explain. In the mission, when you train a Bleue you are a "mother" because you nuture and train up that new bleue for a couple transfers. Well, it is a tradition in the mission that on your first day you get taken out contacting by the older, more experienced missionaries for like 30 minutes. Well, yesterday S. H and I became new fathers! We took the two new sister missionaries contacting. I went with Sister Huzu from New Caladonia who is adorable! She is such a nice girl. I hope I get to serve with her someday. It was fun to be with someone new and see from the other side what we were like as little bleues. They were so scared but eager. Even though both are French speakers it was still nerve racking for them. Sweet little things! Anyway, it was a big milestone for me.

Speaking of Milestones, tomorrow (Oct 16th) is my 9 month mark. I am officially half way done with my mission! Time to really work!I got an email from Sister Didier who met Grandma Selee in the temple and they talked about me. Sister Didier is originally from Belgium I believe so she wanted to write to say hi. It was so fun to write her back in French. I never get the opportunity to write in French! It was cool.

Oh my gosh! I saw my first Broadway musical on Saturday!! I saw "Le Roi Lion" (The Lion King) and it was incredible! The music I already knew well thanks to Sis. H's iPod so I was totally excited to see it and I was NOT let down. It was flawless! Oh, I just can't even tell you. It was incredible! C'est magnifique! If you get the chance to see it In Portland, go! The Elders loved it to! We had to basically drag them there and then they all left totally converted. Now we want to go see "Edward, Mains d'Argent" (Edward Scissor-hands) - the ballet. Fingers crossed!

Last night we had a Burrito Fête with a bunch of less actives and investigators. It was so funny to see chinese people respond to Mexican food. One lady tried to put eggs in the salsa! We pretty much had to steal the bowl from her. And they did not know what to make of the guacamole. It was a hoot!We are having a lot of progress with our investigator Cici from China. She is still searching and unsure about the idea of God but she is trying to understand and that is huge! We are going to the Louvre with her today. Sad news, our ward boundaries were changed on Sunday. All the members living in the 15th District are now in the Antony Ward. And it was so sad because our less active who hasn't come to church since her baptism, came the day they announced it and guess what...Yep. She is in the 15th. She was pretty crestfallen. Poor lady. But we are going to do our best to help her transition well.

Well, those are the bonnes nouvelles for the week. Take care. I love you bunches!

~Kiirsten

Ooops...forgot to post last week :o}

Today we decided to take our proselyting time earlier so we could have the rest of the day to prepare/play! We plan to go to the Palais de Louvre and pick up some fun French scarves as the temp is dropping and let's face it we want to look as chic as possible in beautiful Paris.

Soon, we have exchanges; Sister Fabiano and Sister Giblette are going to come here, to Paris. Then I will be with Sis. G (we rock/paper/scissored to decide who goes with who since we have both already served with Sis. Fabs). I think I actually won because I get to have a whole new experience with a brand new sister missionary who I don't know well personally, lucky me! I am super stoked because they come tomorrow morning! And then the fun begins!

This morning we taught Sylvie and talked about some of her concerns. She said she feels nothing when she reads the BoM. She said she felt that faith and prayer were more important than reading. I told her that it is by studying the scriptures that we enhance our faith. I don't think she understands that it is a commandment to read the words of the prophets. But by the end I felt like we got through to her.We also have a new investigator, Chantale. She is very French, very stylish woman in her fifties. She is deeply catholic, very energetic, and loves talking about her faith. We gave her first the lesson which went incredible. She is one of those who just reasons for herself. I have hope that in a few lessons she will come around. And in addition she accepted to come with us to Conference!! She is a keeper!

It was really fun to see Jocelyn after having seen no one from home in 9 months! She was very sweet to say that I speak perfect French although that is just not the case. Actaully, I have been sick for the last 5 or 6 days, I feel fine now, but on Sunday I wasn't sure if I would even be able to talk. Luckily I was able to speak, I read a talk by El. Arnold of the 70's entitled "Strengthen thy Brethern" that we had shared with Bishop and Sister Arnould that week. He called me the Friday night before and invited me to speak. I was just grateful for the opportunity to speak to the members (and it was my first French sacrament talk)!

I love you a lot! I miss you!

Kiirsten

A welcome phone call :o)

It's always nice to hear from people who have personal interactions or connections with Kiirsten in Paris-either from the missionary mom's website mom subscribes to or from someone we know personally.

In this case, a member of our ward is currently doing a term abroad in Paris and we received a call from her mom recently. She told us that Jocelyn (her daughter) had been attending her first sacrament meeting in her first Paris ward and who would be speaking???? Kiirsten! Jocelyn told her mom, who relayed it to us that not only did Kiirsten look "amazing," but she also spoke "beautiful" French. Being so far away from our little missionary, it was really nice to know that she was able to see someone from back home :o)

Pictures from the Catacombs

As I said last week, the idea of a group of sister missionaries spending their p~day at the catacombs of Paris is a little more than strange, but a landmark is a landmark right?? Well here are some of Kiirsten's latest pictures from that very p~day last week and her trip.

So, I did my best on freetranslation.com and here's what I came up with...LOOSELY transalted it says:

"If you have some time (?) a man (? ?) that the (?) goes out awaits you"

Look-she made some new friends!

So they may be among a BUNCH of skulls and bones, but they sure are having fun!